Pacing Strategies of 1500 m Freestyle Swimmers in the World Championships According to Their Final Position

Abstract

In 1500 m freestyle swimming races, pacing is generally represented by a parabolic or U-shaped curve indicating that swimming velocity is greatest at the start and the last laps of the race while swimmers maintain an even pace through the middle section of the race. However, there is no information to determine if 1500 m race winners select pacing different to other, less successful swimmers within the same competition. Therefore, this investigation aimed to describe the pacing strategies adopted by 1500 m freestyle competitive swimmers in World Championships (long course), from 2003 to 2019 to determine the most effective pacing to obtain victory or a medal. The official overall and split times for 1500 m freestyle races of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) were obtained from the website of this organization. In total, data of 143 swimming performances (71 male and 72 female) were extracted. With the split times, lap times, and position were calculated across the race. To determine differences in the pacing between best- and worst-ranked finalist, swimmers in each race were divided into four groups based on the final position (1st vs. 2nd vs. 3rd vs. 4-8th). All the lap times of the winners of the race were faster than those of participants classified as 4-8th position for men and women races (p < 0.05). However, there were no differences in lap velocity among the different positions achieved at the end of the race when it was normalized by average race velocity. Additionally, there were no differences in the lap-to-lap variability among swimmers with different positions at the end of the race. In summary, both men and women elite swimmers selected parabolic pacing consisting of a fast start in the first lap, an even pace close to their average race velocity in the mid-section of the race (from 50 to 1400 m), followed by an end spurt in the final lap(s). This pattern was very similar in all finalists irrespective of the final position in the race. Hence, the obtaining of a medal in the World Championships was associated to possessing a faster average race velocity rather than a specific pacing profile through the race.

Keywords: elite athlete; endurance competition; pacing behavior; sports performance.

Figure 1

(A) Lap times for men swimmers for the 1500 m freestyle races of the World Championships between 2003 and 2019 according to their final position in the race; (B) Race velocity in each lap with respect to the average race velocity. (*) Statistically significant difference between 1st and 4–8th positions at p < 0.05. (†) Statistically significant difference between 1st and 3rd positions at p < 0.05. Error bars have been removed for clarity.

Figure 2

(A) Lap times for women swimmers for the 1500 m freestyle races of the World Championships between 2003 and 2019 according to their final position in the race; (B) Race velocity in each lap with respect to the average race velocity. (*) Statistically significant difference between 1st and 4–8th positions at p < 0.05. (†) Statistically significant difference between 1st and 3rd positions at p < 0.05. Error bars have been removed for clarity.

Figure 3

Positioning of male swimmers across 1500 m freestyle races of the World Championships (from 2003 and 2019) according to their final position in the race. WC: World Championship.

Figure 4

Positioning of female swimmers across 1500 m freestyle races of the World Championships (from 2003 and 2019) according to their final position in the race. WC: World Championship.